When it comes to naming a daughter, imagination reigns. From Hollywood birth announcements to literary powerhouses, blog babies to the most random of name spottings, a great name can come from anywhere.

This week’s potential seismic name influence? Disney’s big screen retelling of Sleeping Beauty. This time, we’re getting the villain’s side of the story in Maleficent. AngelinaJolie might make the two-horned headdress look elegant, but I doubt she can sell her character’s name to future parents. Maleficent is too downright evil! But plenty of other choices associated with the big summer film could get a boost.

On a sad note, this was also the week the world said farewell to the towering MayaAngelou. If Francis has gained currency as a hero name, could the widely admired writer’s names – first and last – be next?

Together, they point towards some of the most interesting sources for naming daughters in our age: myth, fable, and literature, much of it ancient and well-worn, but some of it modern, even newly invented.

If you’re looking for a name with perfect symmetry and balance, nothing could fit the bill better than a palindromic appellation, meaning one that reads the same backwards and forwards. Granted, that’s a pretty limited field, and a lot of the choices begin and end with the letter ‘a’ with only one consonant in-between, but there are a few others as well. Here are the most usable:

Celebrity names from AvaGardner to AngelinaJolie, MilesDavis to MichaelJordan have influenced the names of real live babies over recent years.But now there’s a brand new generation of stars whose names are proving inspirational to parents. From the worlds of music, sports, and reality TV along with films, these celebrity namesare showing major gains on the new popularity lists in both the U.S. and the U.K.Many of these new celebrity namesare unusual, exotic, rarely heard before their famous bearers brought them to our attention. And their current popularity can be attributed directly to the stars who made them shine.The newest, hottest celebrity names today are: